Family visits Indian spy in Pakistan prison

Condition of Sarabjit Singh, on death row in Lahore jail, critical after he was assaulted by jail inmates.

Members of the Indian Sikh community attended on Sunday a special prayer for the health Sarabjit Singh [AFP]

Members of the family of an Indian citizen on death row in Pakistan have visited him in hospital after he was attacked in jail.

Sarabjit Singh's wife, two daughters and sister visited him at Lahore's Jinnah hospital on Sunday, a Pakistani government statement and a senior doctor at the hospital said.

"He was still in a coma and his condition was critical," the doctor said.

Singh, 49, was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit on Friday with a serious head injury after a group of fellow inmates in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail reportedly hit him with bricks.

Singh had been sentenced to death in 1991 for spying, and for his alleged role in serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990.

Also, the Pakistan foreign ministry said late on Sunday that Indian diplomats in Lahore had been given access to Singh for a second time, following an earlier meeting late on Friday.

Consular access

Earlier, Indian government officials said Pakistan had denied consular access to Singh, who was admitted to hospital with multiple wounds, according to AFP news agency.

On arrival in Pakistan, Singh's sister Dalbir Kaur thanked the Pakistani people for their prayers for her brother's recovery and hoped that he would get well soon and be allowed to return to India.

Singh's lawyer, Owais Sheikh, earlier told AFP that his client had received threats following the execution of a Kashmiri separatist in India. Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged in New Delhi on February 9 for his part in a deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

Singh was convicted over a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province in Pakistan which killed 14 people in 1990. His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf.

His family says he is a victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border.